Alex Senoner One of the most powerful ways I’ve found to boost your confidence in a foreign language is to read a novel in that language. Not just short dialogues or articles, but an actual full-length book, the kind that native speakers themselves read. But the key to making this work is how you approach it. If you go in the wrong way, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and give up.
In this post, I’ll walk you through how I read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in Chinese, the strategy I used to stay motivated, and how you can do the same in your own target language.
Hitting the Intermediate Wall
In my experience, language learning comes in three broad phases: early excitement, frustrating plateau, and then regained momentum. At the beginning, even if you understand very little, everything feels exciting because every word you recognize feels like a win. But after that initial buzz fades, many learners hit what’s often called the intermediate plateau. That’s the phase where you expect to understand more, but the reality still feels frustrating. You’re no longer impressed by what you can understand, you’re rather annoyed by what you cannot.
That’s exactly where I found myself with Chinese. I had studied it on and off for years, but never consistently. It still felt distant and foreign, and I didn’t feel like I could interact with real content comfortably. I needed something to push me forward, something that would prove to myself that I was capable of engaging with advanced, native-level material.
That’s why I decided to read a novel.
Why Harry Potter?
I picked Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for a few reasons. First, I had already read it several times in English and watched the movie multiple times. I knew the plot inside out. That meant that even if I didn’t understand every sentence in Chinese, I could still follow along and not feel lost. That context made a huge difference. Trying to read a book you’ve never seen before in a foreign language is brutal unless you’re already highly fluent. You get stuck, confused, frustrated. Knowing the storyline helps you stay in the flow, even when the words trip you up.
I also happen to have Harry Potter in several languages, in Chinese, Russian, even in Persian (though I haven’t made much progress in that one yet). It’s a great benchmark for comparing my comfort level across different languages. There are other books like The Hobbit or Rich Dad Poor Dad, which are easy reads and which I own in several languages.
How not to Read a Novel
At first, I made a classic mistake: I looked up every word I didn’t know. I even wrote translations in the margins of the book. It felt productive at first, but I quickly burned out. After just two pages, I was exhausted. The constant stopping prevented me from getting into any kind of reading rhythm.
So I had to change my approach. Instead of obsessing over every unknown word, I focused on maintaining the flow. I gave myself permission to not understand everything. I aimed to understand roughly 70–80% of the words. That’s less than what research on “comprehensible input” usually recommends (they often say 90–95%), but I’ve found that threshold unrealistic unless you’re already at a very advanced level.
Instead, I started developing a skill that all language learners need: knowing which words to look up and when.
Learning to Let Go
Here’s how I decided what to look up:
- If I saw a word appear two or three times and still didn’t understand it, I’d look it up.
- If a single word was clearly blocking my understanding of a key part of the story, I’d look it up.
- But if a word seemed minor, maybe it was an onomatopoeic expression or just a fancy verb for “shout” or “say”, I let it go. I could get the meaning from the context.
This skill of resisting the urge to look up everything is something you learn through practice. You’ll feel the temptation, especially if you’re reading on a Kindle where looking up a word is just a tap away. But being selective is crucial. Ironically, looking up words too soon is often a waste of effort. You’re unlikely to remember a new word the first time you see it. But if you encounter it a few more times naturally, you’re much more likely to retain it.
The Real Benefit is Confidence
So what did I gain from reading a novel in Chinese? It wasn’t just vocabulary. The biggest shift was in my confidence. I no longer felt like Chinese was a mysterious, impenetrable wall. Reading the book showed me that I could engage with native-level content, that I could handle stories written for native speakers. That feeling opened the door to more books, more shows, more podcasts. It helped me move from passive learning to real immersion.
Reading a novel won’t make you fluent overnight. But it can be the thing that breaks through your fear, the invisible wall between “studying” a language and living it.
If you’re stuck in that plateau phase, I really recommend picking a novel you already know and trying to read it in your target language. Be patient, read for the story, not for perfection, and learn to enjoy the ride.
